Mujuru said Mnangagwa was a war deserter who cannot win an election because of his role in the Gukurahundi massacres,

He went to Zambia, he went into hiding and carried on with his education. Some of our commanders approached him when he was at the University of Zambia … and he refused. But he is unelectable simply because during Gukurahundi (1980s mass killings in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces), he was the right-hand man of Mugabe in this Fifth Brigade, which was not part of the army.

An estimated 20 000 civilians were killed during Gukurahundi after the Zanu PF government deployed the Fifth Brigade in rural Matabeleland and Midlands to hunt down suspected PF-Zapu dissidents.Mnangagwa, then State Security minister, was allegedly deeply involved in plotting the massacres.